10-man Chelsea slumped to another miserable home defeat at the hands of Aston Villa as Mauricio Pochettino’s torrid start to life at the club continued.
Ollie Watkins rifled his first Premier League goal of the season through the legs of Robert Sanchez with 17 minutes remaining of a lively contest at Stamford Bridge on Sunday to finish off a ruthless counter-attack and make it back-to-back away top-flight wins for Villa over Chelsea.
The goal-shy Blues played the final half an hour in west London with only 10 men after French right-back Malo Gusto’s initial yellow card for a bad challenge on compatriot Lucas Digne was rescinded and changed to red after referee Jarred Gillett was advised by the VAR to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
Chelsea have now gone three consecutive matches without scoring after this defeat was preceded by a bore draw at Bournemouth and another dispiriting home loss to Nottingham Forest, with Axel Disasi’s emphatic header from a Raheem Sterling cross following a short corner on the stroke of half-time rightly disallowed for offside.
Pochettino’s men remain marooned in 14th place in the early table having lost three and won just one of their first six league matches of the new campaign.
Villa, meanwhile, continue their excellent start and quickly bounce back from a shock Europa Conference League defeat at Legia Warsaw, jumping above West Ham into sixth with their fourth win of the season after David Moyes’ side lost 3-1 to Liverpool at Anfield.
